That Old Lady Is A Crashing Bore
I fucking love Dorothy Parker:
One of the stranger pairings in literary history is surely Somerset Maugham and Dorothy Parker, thrown together in rural South Carolina during the summer of 1942 for what Parker later grumbled had been “three long, long, long weeks.” The two had briefly met in New York the previous year, and Parker had joined the parade of writers, critics, and artists who paid their respects to the great man during his wartime American exile at the southern estate of his publisher, Nelson Doubleday. Instead of the well-lubricated party atmosphere she had expected, Parker found herself consigned to endless games of bridge with Maugham and later complained, “That old lady is a crashing bore.” Parker also didn’t fail to notice that what few visitors there were during her stay were “various handsome young men who were not interested in ladies but who were interested in Mr. Maugham.”
Read the rest of this review here and check out more of Somerset's lavish villa.